Alphonso wilson



(modeL) v 2 Sheets8heet 1.

. A. WILSONF Life Saving Chair.

No. 238,74L' Patented March 8,1881.

FIG.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

- (ModeL) A. WILSON. Life Saving Chair.

N0. 238,741. Patented March 8,1881.

VV/ TNESSES N, PETER IJ'NTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALPHONSO -WILSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

LIFE-SAVING CHAIR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 238,741, dated March 8, 1881.

Application filed July 20, 1880. (ModeL) T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ALPHONSO WrLsoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of New York, in the county and State of' New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lifesaving Chairs, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to chairs provided with buoyant material sufficient to support a person in the water and keep them from sinking; and it consists in forming the arms and back of a chair of air-chambers or of buoyant material, and also in providing a ballastrod attached to the bottom of the chair to keep it in an upright position in the water.

The ballast-rod which I provide for my chair is constructed of pieces of tubes, one of which telescopes the others, two or more pieces being used, each piece having stops or collars on thelr ends, so that they cannot be drawn entirely out. My object in constructing the ballast-rod in this way is so that it may have a long rod, which will require much less weight to hold the chair in an upright position, and at the same time permit of it being shortened to within the distance of the length of the chair-legs, and held there while the chair is in ordinary use. In order to hold the closed tubes in this position, I provide a float and binge it under the chair, and attach to it a projecting arm, which is so bent as to enter a hole cut through the side of the outer or large tube near its top, which is fastened to the bottom of the chair, and engage with the stop or collar on the top of the small or inner tube, holding it in a closed position. The weight of the float is on one side of the hinge, and the arm for latching the telescoped tubes is on the other, so that the weight of the float holds in position, and causes it to latch automatically when the small tube is shoved within the others, and so that when the chair is in the water the float is raised and unlatches, allowing the smaller tubes to drop, they being drawn out by the weight on the lower end of the smaller piece.

The object of my invention is to provide a chair that may be used on steamboats in place of the ordinary chair, so that, should an acci dent occur, a person sitting in the chair could jump overboard with it in safety and float in a sitting posture until picked up; orpersons having children could strap them to the chair and throw them overboard with safety until rescued.

upright position when in the water.

I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of my im proved life-saving chair. Fig.2 is a vertical central section of the same on line 00 m of Fig. 1, the telescoping tubes that form the ballastrod closed. Fig. 3 is the same kind of a view with the telescoping tubes that form the ballast-rod drawn out to their full length.

A is the back and arms, composed of an air-chamber or any buoyant material.

B is the ballast-rod, the upper end of which is attached to the chair, and the lower end provided with a weight to hold the chair in an In this case I have made the ballast-rod of pieces of tubing, the lower ones smaller and telescoping the OilJGlS, so that when it is closed it extends downward no farther than the legs of the chair; and I provide an automatic floatlatch, O, to hold it up when used as an ordinary chair. This float is hinged at one side, so that it comes under the front of the bottom of the chair.

An arm, D, reaches out from the hinged side, and is so bent as to enter an opening in the side of the large tube which forms the upper endof the ballast-rod, and engages with the stop on the end of the smaller or inside rod in such a manner that when the chair is dropped into the water the float automatically rises and unlatches the tubes, and they drop down to their full length. This telescoping arrangement of the rod is to secure greater leverage, so that a smaller weight may be used to hold the chair in an upright position, and is latched up in its shortened position, when in ordinary use, for the more convenient handling, especially to keep it out of the way, when throwing the chair overboard.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is 1. Achair provided with the float, as A, and ballast-rod B, the rod being made of tubes, one telescoping the other, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The float G, pivoted under the seat, as described, and provided with the latch-arm D, in combination with the ballast-rod B, forlatching and automatically unlatching the same, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

Witnesses: ALPHONSO WILSON.

J AS. J. THoRNLEY, Gno. E. ANDREW. 

